So when Jesus had washed their feet and put his outer clothing back on, he took his place at the table again and said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and do so correctly, for that is what I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you too ought to wash one another’s feet.
“For I have given you an example – you should do just as I have done for you. I tell you the solemn truth, the slave is not greater than his master, nor is the one who is sent as a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
“If you understand these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
Rights are funny things, aren’t they? We expect them, we might demand them, we speak up when other people don’t get them or need to demand them themselves, and sometimes we just gloss over other people’s. There are some rights that we consider earned and others — as we learned in grade school — inalienable (a word we only use with rights, and not, say, my potato chips. It means ‘that which cannot be taken away’ which is perfectly applicable to my chips, right?).
In one of His last conversations with His disciples, Jesus both reminded them of His rights and showed them what leaders should do with their rights. He reminded them that He was their teacher and Lord. Wow. Yep, they agreed. He was all of that and more.
But at the same time, as their teacher and Lord, He took the lowest and most meager job in the house: foot washer.
He didn’t wait for someone to ask Him to do it. He didn’t get into a ‘not-me’ race of excuses why it shouldn’t be done, why someone else would be better at it, or how there’s no point because in about an hour they are all going to go outside and get their feet dirty all over again.
It was never about the feet.
It was about what greatness is and what it means to be great.
If you understand these things, you’ll be blessed if you do them.
The blessed person is seldom the tyrant that demands action from others. The blessed person is seldom the one forcing others to serve them. The blessed person is more often the one humbly and quietly defining themselves by their living Master and not by which rights they can keep.
Jesus Himself said “I have given you an example.” It’s not hidden in a foreign language or in some 1st century middle-eastern idiom.
If you understand these things, you’ll be blessed if you do them.
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